Rollover image on your website? That will be $80,000 (please)

A company called Webvention says that sites with rollover images and …

"Dear website owner, congratulations on your excellent site, which includes features covered by our registered patent, #5,251,294. As the description indicates, many of the components on your pages, particularly your menus, rollover images, and shortcuts, are detailed in our claim. We would be delighted to lease these to you at a reasonable royalty rate of $80,000. Please call our offices at your convenience to arrange a payment schedule."

Nuts, right? We wish. Meet the Webvention Company, which appears to exist largely for the purpose of collecting money from companies whose online sites include commonly used features that can be construed as part of patent 5,251,294.

Settle up

The demand letter suggests that thinkwhatspossible's opening splash of face portraits is covered by "Claim 28" of Webvention's patent property.

28. A computer-based method for aiding a user in accessing a body of stored information which includes segments of related information, the method comprising displaying a set of labels, each label providing an abbreviated indication of information content of a corresponding one of said segments, said labels being displayed in an organized model reflecting relationships among information contents of said corresponding segments . . .

It wouldn't be the first time, but wait—it gets even better. "Claim 29" encompasses claim 28 "wherein said model comprises a hierarchy of at least two levels." Are we talking hierarchical drop down menus here?

Whatever companies are doing to violate this amazingly general patent language (the patent itself is called "Accessing, assembling, and using bodies of information "), Webvention offers them a way to make the problem disappear.

"For the next 45 days, Webvention is willing to license the '294 patent for a one-time, fully paid-up licensing fee of $80,000.00 for a non-exclusive, company wide right to use Webvention technology," the letter to Novartis explains under a subhead titled "The Webvention Licensing Opportunity."

Irreparable harm

According to Law.com, Webvention acquired the property from the great patent gobbler itself, Intellectual Ventures, and has been having a grand old time with it ever since. The firm is suing Abercrombie and Fitch, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dell, Gamestop, E*Trade, Neiman Marcus, Visa and ten other companies for patent infringement on '294. And the outfit wants jury trials in Texas. East Texas.

"Defendants' infringement of Webvention’s rights under the patent-in-suit will continue to damage Webvention, causing irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law, unless enjoined by this Court," the action insists. The firm's site claims that it has made licensing deals with Apple, Google, Nokia, Sears, Sony and Orbitz.

Can anyone stop this outfit from contacting the rest of us online companies, news sites, and bloggers with "opportunities" to pay it $80,000? Well, Novartis is giving it a shot, pushing back in court that it has infringed no one and demanding that Webvention be enjoined from pestering the medicine company for money.

As for the jury trial, Novartis says, "Bring it on... in Delaware," which Law.com suggests might be a better venue for the company.

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.